Not selecting seats on plane... risky?

[Worriedmotheroftwo]

Flying with Wizzair. 2 parents 2 children. Not selected seats. Selecting seats for all 4 of us would cost us £80 total. Their policy is to seat a parents with a child...

We will obviously try to check in and get seats sorted at first opportunity. Happy to be split up as long as each of our children is with one of us. But what if the plane is full of people who have booked seats though and there's not 2 pairs of seats available for us? Would we not get to go on the flight?

On one hand, £80 is a lot of extra money. On the other hand, I don't want us to not get on the flight at all!

We haven't travelled much with children so not sure how risky this is. Would welcome opinions. Many thanks!

Thanks. What absolute madness.
I am not surprised by the entitled behaviour though and just hoping no one who paid for a seat was forced to move. Perhaps some disgruntled people volunteered just to get the plane moving
I bet they were popular with everyone being delayed

I agree, really good news. Have a fantastic holiday OP. (And spend that £80 on a fab meal.)

@Worriedmotheroftwo I wouid always want to check whether the airline policy of next to literally meant next to rather than seat in front or behind as different airlines use different definition. Worked for you this time

Its not weird to want certain seats
I dont want to sit near the toilet for instance or be a middle seat

Simply, your emergency is not a me emergency
Unless i get an upgrade, i aint moving or accepting a downgrade

Exactly this..How do you think you think your child is going to react when not seated next to you..? And they are very young to be sat next to strangers
Yes £80 is a lot of money but not so much to ensure your kids are not distressed and feel safe .

Just pay for seats as you know you will all travel together, I booked all of ours for an extra 100 there and back. It's just the peace of mind

Im on a low budget but I still paid for my seats I wouldn't want my kids to be sitting next to anyone especially with travelling into a foreign country and if your child is autistic will he not need you more to have a familiar face next to him on the flight. What about if he gets vocal next to a stranger and they get stressed out? Then you will lose temper at stranger when In hindsight that is your own fault

Unsure about whizzair, but easyJet online check in opens 30 days in advance. You can skip seat selection and see what seats you have been allocated, but go back and pay if you are separate want to choose them instead.

If every family was as lucky as you have been, @Needspaceforlego, then there wouldn't be any stories about families trying to make other people swap seats so they can be together. These stories demonstrate that some people take the risk and aren't as lucky as you have been.

Of course it's everyone's choice whether to book specific seats or not - that's not the issue - the problem comes when someone doesn't book specific seats, finds they aren't lucky and are further from their kids/the rest of their party than they want to be, and then start insisting other people, who may have paid, to have specific seats, swap with them, so they don't have to suffer the effects of taking the risk.

When the dc were younger, if we flew, we factored the cost of booking seats together into the overall cost of the holiday, because we thought that was better than taking the risk. If we flew with them now (they are all adults) we wouldn't bother. But if I have paid to have a specific seat (an aisle seat, so I can get up to go to the loo easily, because I have mobility issues), I'm not going to give it up for someone who hasn't paid the extra, but feels entitled to my seat.

I would never move out of my chosen paid for seat to accommodate a family. They would have to airlift me out of it. Sorry but you have to pay like the rest of us.

Now we know op is sorted, who remembers when easyJet first started and simply didn’t allocate seats? My mum used to charge forwards, leaving my dad to follow with the bags!

Of course it's everyone's choice whether to book specific seats or not - that's not the issue - the problem comes when someone doesn't book specific seats, finds they aren't lucky and are further from their kids/the rest of their party than they want to be, and then start insisting other people, who may have paid, to have specific seats, swap with them, so they don't have to suffer the effects of taking the risk.

This is the crux of the issue always. Absolutely no problem in not paying for specific seats and taking the chance. The problem is not liking the seats that are then allocated and kicking up a fuss that others have to move to accommodate the wishes of the person/family who have not paid to pre book seats.

It's not necessarily such a problem if swaps are being made between others who have not paid for a specific seat either, but certainly does become a problem when swaps are being asked of those who have paid for seat selection.

As I mentioned up thread, fortunately being at the front and paying £32 plus per seat each, cabin crew don't bother asking these seats to swap as it would just be a nonsense. The only time when it would be fair enough is if an injured passenger (broken leg etc) needs those seats and then it's understandable.

I've never paid for seats with easyJet, I fly twice a year with my two Dd's, we've always been seated together.

I think you have too much time on your hands Haunted Bungalow!

As long as you get your money back before you give someone your paid for seat. See upthread with a poster still waiting 7months later for a refund they also had to waste time applying for. So refund first. Better or just as good as seat Ok to move. IMO.

no, they can'; -but asking creates an unnecessary atmosphere and refusing , even more so

They can ask, of course, but the circumstances they have to insist you move are a different matter.
Upthread it notes, security and a threat for example.

I flew easyJet to Majorca last year. I didn’t pay for my seats but as soon as seating opened I went online and found that myself and two kids were allocated three seats together on both out and inbound flights. I think if you can get on there as soon as humanly possible you should be ok.
i think if we hadn’t been put together then I would have paid for us to sit together.

Moving seat for safety is one thing. Forcibly moving one passenger who has paid extra for that seat to accommodate another passenger who didn't want pay the money to get sat beside their child is another. It is quite frankly CF behaviour to expect that just because you have a child that everyone else should be inconvenienced because your time/money is more important than everyone else's. An airlines policy to sit a parent and child together is a you and an airline problem. It should not be everyone else's problem. If you truly believe you have a right to sit beside your child and not pay the seat charge either for that privilege or for the person you have usurped out of their paid for seat (and I am only talking about seats where people had paid extra to sit in a particular seat) then that smacks of everything that is currently wrong in this world with people have zero consideration for their fellow humans.

"An airlines policy to sit a parent and child together is a you and an airline problem."

Well maybe. But for my family it would ONLY be an airline problem. My kids are aged 10 and 11 and would literally not care whether they were sat with me or not. they'll be headphones on, watching a film the whole time anyway. And I don't care. It's not like they can get lost / get out at the wrong stop!
So if the AIRLINE wants to stick us together to accommodate the guidelines then that's fine. They can do that, or sort it out at the time of the flight. Not my problem HOW they sort it.
But I'm not being forced to pay extra just because of rules they have to follow when they could just allow it for free for parents (and we're not bothered) that's discrimination frankly.
If the airline made you pay for the privilege of sitting where you want to and then takes that back to accommodate seating us - then take it up with them. We're not asking for it!

Quite often extra leg room seats are at the emergency exits.
They need fit adults in those seats so they can operate the emergency exits, if necessary.
Children aren't allowed in them, and I can't imagine disabled (temporarily or permanently) people are allowed in them either.

30 days to the time of your flight. The app should tell you exactly when if you go into your booking.

Other people would be asked. But not forced.

The app and the website said an hour apart but the website was correct. I had already provided API info so just had to check in, did it bang on the time it opened and got assigned a rubbish seat. I assumed I might get nearer the front if I did it early. But I didn't pay coming back and that's what I risked. I won't be complaining about it and demanding people swap with me

As long as you don’t expect people who have paid for their seats to move for you, then go ahead. But accept what you’re given if more people actually pay for their seats. Otherwise you’re just acting entitled. Your £80 saved does not mean more than the money others spend to ensure seat selection.